Shelter & Home Security
The same home safety principles apply to every household. The starting points differ. Families with young children, seniors living at home, people living alone, and households with pets each have different priorities, different gaps, and different first steps.
Family safety planningWhy situation matters
A general home safety guide gives you the principles. This section gives you the application. A family with a three-year-old and a household where a grandparent has limited mobility have different evacuation timelines, different communication plans, and different gear priorities.
The same is true for people who live alone and need to plan for scenarios where no one else is there to help, and for households where a dog or cat is a genuine member of the household whose needs belong in the emergency plan.
None of these situations require more fear. They require more specificity. The guides in this section take the general principles from the rest of the shelter section and translate them into the version that fits how your household actually works.
What this section covers
Guides in this section
Each guide covers one household situation from the ground up. Read the one that matches your household, then cross-reference the others for the people and animals in your life.
Fire escape routes, family meeting points, emergency contacts, and how to practice without turning it into something frightening. The foundational plan every household with multiple people needs.
Read the guide →
Age-appropriate safety education for children. What children at different ages can understand, practice, and be responsible for. Teaching skills without stoking fear.
Guide coming
Fall prevention, medication management, communication systems, and evacuation planning for older adults. Home modifications with realistic costs and the difference between "nice to have" and necessary.
Guide coming
Check-in systems, door security that works without anyone else home, communication plans when there is no default emergency contact in the household, and the gear priorities that change when you are the only one.
Guide coming
Including dogs, cats, and other animals in the household emergency plan. Water and food storage calculations, evacuation logistics, shelter-in-place considerations, and pet-specific documentation.
Guide coming
Start here
Before reading the situation-specific guides, these three steps apply to every household regardless of composition. They are the floor, not the ceiling.
Choose one person who lives outside your area who can serve as a central communication point if local lines are overwhelmed. Make sure everyone in the household knows who it is and how to reach them.
Time: 5 minutes · Cost: $0
Identify one spot outside the home and one spot away from the neighborhood. Every person in the household should be able to get there independently. Walk the route at least once.
Time: 20 minutes · Cost: $0
Where the gas shutoff is. Which neighbor has a spare key. Where the important documents are. What medications someone takes and where they are stored. The things that seem obvious until they are not.
Time: 30 minutes · Cost: $0
Connected guides
Smoke alarms, CO detectors, fire escape planning, and utility shutoffs. The safety layer that applies to every household regardless of composition.
Locks, lighting, alarms, cameras, and daily habits. Security considerations change depending on whether someone is home alone or has children who may answer the door.
Many household situations overlap with the renter experience. Small space storage, shared building fire safety, and portable security options without drilling.
Medication continuity, medical device backup power, and chronic condition planning. Especially relevant for senior household members and people with ongoing health needs.
Documents, continuity plans, and household records. The planning infrastructure that makes the situation-specific guides work when they need to.
Back to the full section. Eight content areas covering safety, security, and resilience for every home.